It could be magic

Young Chang

In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “100 Years of Solitude,” people in the

town of Macondo live for more than a century. Some resurrect after death.

One dead man’s ghost visits his killer’s home to look for water in the

kitchen to use on his wounds.

This is “magical realism,” a term that describes Latin American

literature during the 1960s. The technique is to make magic seem real.

Most people connect it with literature.

But Marilyn Ellis, a Corona del Mar artist, has translated the style

to visual mono prints, a technique in which the artist paints on a sheet

of plexiglass on an engraving press that is then used to create one

print.

The cactus and flowers in her paintings, the birds and the fruits --

they will never leave the paper. They will never die and they will never

change. They are magical in this way, but in Ellis’ art world, this is

reality.

Poet John Harrell’s words accompany Ellis’ prints. She asked him to

write a poem for each image. He asked not to be told anything about why

and what she painted. The poems are solely Harrell’s interpretations.

The Newport Beach Central Library, which is exhibiting Ellis’ work

through Nov. 1, will hold an artist’s reception and a reading of

Harrell’s poems by Orange County poet Lee Mallory from 2 to 4 p.m.

Sunday.

“There is a magic to life, to dealing with living things,” Ellis said.

“Even with my abstract work, [the ideas] are taken from living things.”

She believes magical realism in visual art may be more difficult to

pull off than in literature because the visual is usually more concrete.

What you see is what you see, and there is less left to the imagination.

“My kids are so much better off with books than with TV,” she said.

But her prints are lively. Apples are blood red and watermelons are

lighter red. White birds sing and look blurry from the motion of their

feathers and craning necks. Plants are very green and springy.

Ellis is excited by the energy of living things. Her previous bouts

with melanoma and breast cancer sharpened her attention to life. The

cancer was detected early, and she never underwent chemotherapy or

radiation. It is dormant now.

“There’s something more to life than putting food in your mouth,”

Ellis said. “‘Reflechir.’ It’s an important verb in French. It’s

important to reflect.”

Women typically complain about being old, she continued. They count

the years and get depressed. She is comfortable with aging, saying it has

a beauty and importance of its own.

Harrell’s poems, for the most part, are in harmony with Ellis’

intended messages.

For the image “Fleures rouges, jaunes avec noir,” Harrell wrote a poem

titled “This Tangled Garden.” The print shows red and yellow flowers,

dark yellow leaves and some sprays of black. The black might be a vase,

it might be tree bark. But for both artists, the flowers are celebratory.

The last verse of the poem reads: “My mind accepts what it sees, the

peace these flowers bring, then thanks the timeless hands that planted

here, for others to enjoy.”

Harrell, an Anaheim poet who has published four books of poetry,

rarely hears of two artists creating works specifically for each other’s

art. The process was fun, he said.

“It was very interesting that when I found out later some of the

background on the paintings, we did harmonize,” he added.

The poems provide an extra layer to each of Ellis’ prints at the

library. It is Harrell’s hope that exhibit visitors will add their own

imagination to the works.

“I want them to be like me,” he said. “You take a word image and a

visual image, and hopefully it’ll create a third image in [people’s]

minds.”

FYI:

* WHAT: Magic Realism, an exhibit of original mono prints by Marilyn

Ellis and poems by John C. Harrell

* WHEN: An artist’s reception will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. The

exhibit will run through Nov. 1.

* WHERE: Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave.

* CALL: (949) 717-3801